By Shaenon K. Garrity

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Obviously, the funnest part of this week of strips was drawing Mell’s crazy hair. I really liked the way she came out in these strips. Dave’s hair is pretty good too.

That’s right: I have nothing constructive to say about this strip except for comments about the characters’ hair. But, again, I really like the hair.

My favorite part of this strip is Dave letting the space pen float away in the second panel. It came out looking very natural. Also, it’s a totally boss space pen, or whatever it’s supposed to be.

Also, the surface of the Moon looks pretty great. I wish I could’ve gotten it looking this good on a consistent basis. Plus, again, Mell’s hair.

I should’ve swapped the order of the Tuesday and Wednesday strips in this week. The story would read better that way. Oh well.

I was careful to use “micro-G” instead of “zero-G” because zero gravity technically doesn’t exist; even in deep space, objects continue to exert a small amount of gravitational force on each other. I was also careful to include a pee joke in this week of strips because peeing is funny.

Argh, that computer font is headache-inducing. I like the way the defense shield satellites came out, though. And, of course, the hair.

Man, I draw pudgy fingers sometimes.

Anyway, this strip is pretty cute even though I had to introduce a running gag about the transmogrification process grossing people out just to give it a punchline. Also, I find Dave in Madblood’s body wearing just a T-shirt strangely attractive. I don’t know what this means, but I’m also very attracted to Toofer in the episode of “30 Rock” where he dresses as Frank, and this might stem from the same impulse.

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51 thoughts on “Professor Madblood and the Doppelganger Gambit: February 3-8, 2003”

They should never have allowed Mell’s hair to return to microgravity – its natural habitat. Now it’s shed its sharp pointy exoskeleton and is metamorphosing into its adolescent form. Its tentacles reach for the blood of a new host to succor its years-long thirst.

Once again meddling, suicidally irresponsible women force Dave’s mind into a life-or-death struggle against several laws of physics at once. It’s a good thing Mell’s wearing glasses, ’cause a mouth that fat would have her cruising for a bruising… so to speak.

As an aside, there’s a great exchange in Robert Heinlein’s _Friday_ where the title character is talking to her (at that point former) employer’s lawyer, who’s on the moon, and Friday expresses disbelief at Ms. Wong’s being a grandmother. Ms. Wong explains that it’s one of the advantages of living in 1/6 G–_nothing_ sags! (Okay, she doesn’t exactly explain it like that, but still, that’s part of the upshot of the conversation…)

And if you ever want to start serious arguments at any SF convention, ask people whether Heinlein was a better writer before or after he became a dirty old man… -_^

If you watch NASA TV — well worth doing while there’s a shuttle mission on, BTW — you’ll know that you get real life zero gravity bad hair. One of the recent female space station astronauts seemed to have a thing about wearing her hair in really odd ways. You haven’t seen real bad hair until you’ve seen a zero-g afro.

Mell should have the sense of mind to realise that her (presumably) first and (quite possibly) only microgravitational experience is rapidly coming to a close, and she should make the most of it with the requisite spit marbles and infinite somersaults, and the other childhood games that our distant descendants will take for granted.

I have been on holiday and want to express appreciation for both this week’s strips so far, and zero-gravity in general. Also Mell’s angry face when she realises about the plasma cannon.

I have often wondered what my hair (which is a foot or so longer than Mell’s) would do in null-gee. Float all around my head like a mermaid’s, is my guess. It is surprisingly disappointing when hooked up to a Van der Graaf generator because its length makes it too heavy.

I just realised something else we never got around to seeing – a microgravity chase scene where both parties spin their legs uselessly in midair a few feet from each other, causing themselves only to rotate on the spot until their foreheads collide with a pathetic clunk.

On a trip to the MoonWith a murderous loon,We were stuck in micro-G!Threw some stuff out the hatchSo the ship wouldn’t crash;But she said, “Dude, I gotta pee!”The transmogrifierI had to deny her,Though she was ready to fight!She said, “Ready, set and …”Right then we got threatenedBy a killer satellite!

(So I said …)Give her ten secs,Give her just ten secondsFor to shoot me in the face!Give her ten secs,Give her just ten seconds,Or we’ll both be sucking space!

Aaaah, look at all the genius mad men!Aaaah, look at all the schemes he had then!

Nikola TeslaKnew that electrical current should best alternate …Met a sad fate!Now he’s a unit,Lending his name to the measure of magnetic flux …That really sucks!All the genius mad menWho show off lightning tricks …All the genius mad men;Why can’t they score the chicks?

I do have to make one teeeeeny little criticism of Saturday’s comic. Panel 1: M’s arms down, hair up. Panel 2: arms thrown up, hair down. Panel 3: arms down, hair back up. Alas, it would be the exact opposite since throwing her arms up would drive her body downward, leaving her hair up. (And the first person who tells me there is no “up” or “down” in micro-G gets a rude noise made in their general direction.)

WAIT WAIT!!! I stand corrected! Notice M’s head relative to Dave’s – when she threw her arms up, she must have also “jumped” a bit, pushing off the floor. And that WOULD push her hair down. Never mind! Shaenon rules!